Celtics struck it rich with Nets' picks

The 2013 deal with Brooklyn led to acquiring Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the draft while using another pick to obtain Kyrie Irving.

Jim Fenton The Enterprise @JFenton_ent

BOSTON – Brooklyn deal is the gift that keeps on giving

There was a swing and a miss the first time they dipped into a treasure trove of draft picks obtained from the Brooklyn Nets.

It was the summer of 2014 when the Celtics selected Kentucky’s James Young at No. 17, courtesy of a massive trade one year earlier with the Nets.

Young did very little in three seasons with the Celtics, averaging 2.3 points in 89 games, and he is now the second-leading scorer in the NBA G League at 25.8 points with the Wisconsin Herd.

Following that swing and miss, however, the Celtics hit nothing but round trippers in the bounty they received from the Nets in 2013.

For sending the aging Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce plus Jason Terry and D.J. White, the Celtics picked up Brooklyn’s first-round picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018 plus the right to swap spots in 2017.

They also received Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks and Keith Bogans, who played a combined 175 games in Boston.

The Celtics turned the 2016 pick into Jaylen Brown and used the Nets’ 2017 choice to land Jayson Tatum, both at No. 3.

And the 2018 Brooklyn pick became a valuable chip in allowing the Celtic to trade for Kyrie Irving last August.

It may have been difficult for sentimental reasons to bid adieu to Garnett and Pierce, but what a haul the Celtics have gotten for two players who had seen their best days.

Those Nets’ draft picks have set the Celtics up to be among the NBA contenders for a significant stretch into the next decade.

They are off to a 21-4 start this season heading into the finale of a five-game homestand tonight against the Dallas Mavericks (7:35, TV: NBC Sports Boston; radio: WBZ-FM/98.5).

First came Brown, who went through a lot of ups and downs in his rookie season when the Celtics made it to the Eastern Conference finals.

There were plenty of signs that Brown was an athlete with potential, and he’s taking a giant leap in his sophomore season, averaging 14.8 points and 5.9 rebounds.

The Celtics wound up with the No. 1 pick in last summer’s draft thanks to the Nets, then moved down to No. 3 to acquire a potential future lottery pick from the Philadelphia 76ers.

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge had his sights set on Duke forward Tatum, and he is one of the reasons why the Celtics have been able to overcome the loss of Gordon Hayward to climb to the top of the NBA.

Tatum is leading the league in 3-point shooting (51 percent) and is a cool customer, especially in the fourth quarter when crunch time arrives.

He is averaging 13.9 points and with 348 points, ranks fourth with the most by a Celtics rookie through 25 games, trailing Larry Bird, Dave Cowens and Dino Radja.

“I’ve seen Jayson play since he was a sophomore in high school,’’ said Irving. “I’ve been a fan of him since then.

“I think that you worry about the transition from high school to college, and from college to the NBA, but I think that he’s doing his due diligence in terms of getting the work in every single day, doing what he needs to do, being a professional, learning how to consistently do that, and now it’s paying dividends.”

Then there’s Irving, who wanted out of Cleveland during the summer and the Celtics pounced.

They had to part with Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and rookie Ante Zizic, and the Cavs wanted the Nets’ 2018 pick, which figures to be in the lottery again.

There are few complaints about all the Celtics had to give up to get a guard who is in the discussion for the most valuable player award through the first one-third of the season.

No one could have imagined back in the summer of 2013 that the Celtics would transform those Nets picks into three players like Irving, Brown and Tatum.

They now have a young trio – Irving turns 26 in March, Brown is 21 and Tatum will be 20 in three months – who will just keep getting better and better.

James Young may have been a swing and a miss, but every move after that involving the Nets’ picks was anything but that.

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